


We Owned The Sun

by yormgen



Series: Growing Pains [2]
Category: Persona 5
Genre: F/F, F/M, M/M, Multi, Ryuji-centric, lifes tough when all of your friends are gorgeous and understanding
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-12
Updated: 2018-03-12
Packaged: 2019-03-30 05:49:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,015
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13944240
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/yormgen/pseuds/yormgen
Summary: Ryuji’s experience with girls generally ranged from poor to nonexistent, but he liked to believe he at least had the sense to not hit on a girl with an immediate blow to her ego. He’d only known Shiho for about a year, and what he’d gathered from that year of sharing homerooms and after-school cross training was that Shiho definitely had more sense than him. He was almost delighted to have been so wrong.





	We Owned The Sun

“Sakamoto,” Shiho hissed under her breath, staring intently across the classroom. She kept beating the back of her hand against his chest. “Did you see the new girl?”

“Uh,” Ryuji managed, leaning away. He had seen the new girl, just like everyone else in the class. She was introduced to the room less than an hour ago.

Shiho took a fistful of Ryuji’s shirtsleeve without breaking her focus on the girl, who’d spent the better part of the hour looking like she would rather evaporate into thin air than be looked at. She wouldn’t look at anyone else, either. Ryuji wasn’t sure why Shiho seemed so convinced that she didn’t have his attention yet, since she was  _still_  tugging his sleeve.

Shaking her head, Shiho dropped her voice to something even softer, so that Ryuji had to reluctantly lean back towards her. “She so  _pretty_.”

Once the initial shock of seeing platinum blonde and bright blue wore off, Ryuji’s first thought about the new girl was that she looks  _terrified._ His second thought was that those two bouncing pigtails settling right at her shoulders sort of made her look like a poodle. His last thought, yeah, she was  _really_ freaking pretty. 

“Okay,” he said slowly. “What about it? You never struck me as the type to get jealous about having other pretty girls around.” 

Shiho finally looked away from the girl to stare at Ryuji with such an intense bewilderment that he may as well have grown a second head. It didn’t take him long from there to put two and two together. 

 

~

 

It did take three long laps around the cross-country track for Ryuji to convince Shiho to talk to him about what had come from her attempt to pursue her new crush. If she thought working him to breathlessness would keep him from making fun of her, then she sorely underestimated a sprinter’s lung capacity. 

“Wait,” Ryuji gasped, trying to pull himself out of a debilitating laughing fit. He barely dodged the water bottle Shiho chucked at him. “You did  _what_?”

Shiho’s brows knit in something middling embarrassment and frustration. “I tried to talk to her!”

“By telling her she sucked at painting?!”

“That’s not what I said!” Shiho cried, burying her face in her hands. “It’s not what I  _meant_ to say! I wanted to make a joke!”

Ryuji’s experience with girls generally ranged from poor to nonexistent, but he liked to believe he at least had the sense to not hit on a girl with an immediate blow to her ego. He’d only known Shiho for about a year, and what he’d gathered from that year of sharing homerooms and after-school cross training was that Shiho definitely had more sense than him. He was almost delighted to have been so wrong.

 

~

 

Shiho cornered Ryuji during lunch and very gently, sweetly, inarguably demanded that he ate with her and Ann.

“Why?” Ryuji looked away from her when he asked, because he already knew the answer.

Shiho put her hands on her hips and gave him a very warm smile. He ducked his head and followed her back to Ann.

To her credit, Ann didn’t look  _entirely_  like she was about to jump out of her skin when Ryuji sat at the desk next to her. He couldn’t fault her, they hadn’t spoken to each other since he growled and barked at the upperclassmen who pulled her pigtails, and they didn’t really speak to each other then, either. She did look extremely unready for this, which Ryuji also thought was fair, because he figured he probably looked exactly the same. 

“So, Ryuji,” Shiho said easily, tearing open a small bag of chips. She’d never called him that before, so he bit his tongue hard so he wouldn’t make a thing out of it. “Be honest. I get standing up to bullies, but why did you bleach your hair? Me and Ann have been arguing about it.” 

Ann squeaked out something that might’ve been a denial, but Ryuji was stuck on Shiho, because she had already asked him about that, right after it happened. She met his eye, and nodded ever so slightly towards Ann, prompting him to elaborate again anyway. 

He scratched the back of his neck. “I mean... if everyone’s gonna be an asshole over someone looking a little different, then yeah, I could yell at them one at a time until I’m blue in the face. But, uh,” he gestured to Ann’s hair, and then his own, giving himself a second to articulate his point, “I figured if she wasn’t the only one anymore, then that kinda kills the point of targeting her. And I’d like to see them try to come for me, y’know? Seemed like the solution with the least hassle.” 

Shiho hummed, satisfied, and set the torn open chip bag in between all three of them. Ann looked away from the both of them desperately, and her embarrassment was starting to rub off on Ryuji, so he grabbed a handful of the chips to shut himself up. 

“Um...” Ann started so quietly that Ryuji had to stop chewing to make sure he heard her. “Did you get in any trouble?” 

“Huh?” He said intelligently, mouth full. “Oh, for bleaching it? Yeah, I got chewed out by someone in the faculty office over it, but they kinda let it go when I told them why I did it.”  

This time, Ryuji had to turn away from Ann’s stare. He cleared his throat and kept his tone light, “I'm gonna keep it up to see how long they’ll let me, y’know? Besides—“ 

“Besides,” Shiho interrupted, looking peaceful, “I think it suits you. I’ve always thought blonde was a really good look.”

Whatever face Ryuji and Ann made gave Shiho a good laugh.

 

~

 

**Shiho** : Ryuji?

**Shiho** : Ryuji, where the hell are you? I’ve been waiting on the tracks for like, 20 minutes 

**Ryuji** : oh fuck SORRY

**Ryuji** : moms comin home early so im getting groceries for dinner. forgot 2 txt u 

**Ann** : ooh what’s mom making?? :0 

**Shiho** : Mention food and Ann appears! 

**Ann** : hey. ):

**Ann** : im stuck with like. leftover tofu here. have pity.

**Ryuji** : idk but she says yall can both come over if u want

**Shiho** : NICE, ILU MAMA SAKAMOTO

**Ann** : hey!!! you can’t pick on me and then be more excited!!! ):<

**Ryuji** : see u soon?

**Shiho** : Yes!

**Ann** : yes!!!!!!!

 

~

 

Ryuji would like to say that he couldn’t pinpoint the moment that it wasn’t weird anymore for him and Ann to be walking together without Shiho standing between them, but he knew it tied pretty closely to whenever their school’s blonde headcount jumped up to two.

Walking around alone with a girl at an aquarium was  _still_  weird. Shiho apparently caught a cold right before the trip, and somewhere down the line, Ann decided that if she didn’t have Shiho’s hip to attach to, Ryuji’s would do. It’s not that Ryuji minded that, but Ann kept doing this thing where she dragged him by the hand to whichever tank caught her eye, tugging him closer when she wanted him to see something.

They looked a little too much like all of the young couples who usually filled the place. Ann spent so many weeks with that cold and withdrawn exterior, Ryuji was shocked by how little self-preservation she actually had in the right company. He also didn’t quite get why his company in particular always had a thing for tugging at him.

He kept catching people looking at them funny, heard their classmates whispering like they always did, and he almost said something about it when Ann turned from the tanks to him with a smile so bright he forgot how to talk for a minute.

“What are you looking at, anyway?” Ann asked, realizing that Ryuji hadn’t been paying attention to whatever she’d been saying.

Ryuji cleared his throat. “Your hair looks green in this light,” he said.

“Whatever, so does  _yours_!”

 

~

 

The weather in May was usually pretty nice, but for how tense the atmosphere was around Shujin, the air from the rooftop felt just a little lighter than it had in ages. Ryuji figured that having the threat of expulsion taken away could just do that sort of thing. 

He absently watched Ann cross her legs and manage to look as glamorous as someone probably could while sitting on a dirty, sun-bleached school desk. Ryuji couldn’t remember the last time they’d just sat together on their own like this. 

A year really had changed them both into different people, he thought, letting himself study how much longer Ann’s pigtails had gotten, how much taller she’d grown, how sharp her face had become. 

“Hey,” she sighed. “What do you think you’re staring at?” 

Ryuji gave her a sheepish grin before turning to watch the door instead. “Nothing. Your hair’s really long, now.” 

Ann frowned, pulling her knees up to her chest. “Yeah, it turns out that’s what happens when you don’t cut it.” 

Biting the inside of his cheek, Ryuji let the gibe slide. It probably was an obvious thing to point out, he guessed. “You’re still doing modeling stuff right? Guess long hair suits that kinda thing.” 

Ann only gave him a vague hum. 

“What’s your problem?” He grumbled, and then flinched when Ann jolted and turned a burning glare on him. 

“What’s  _my_  problem?” she snapped, scrambling off the desk and to her feet. “What’s  _your_  problem? What’s been your problem for the  _past year_?!” 

Ryuji blinked, bewildered, while she towered over him, fists balled at her sides, face red, and on the verge of tears. 

“We haven’t talked in  _forever_ , and I don’t even know why! We get different home rooms and suddenly we’re not friends anymore?!” She shook her head, almost hitting him in the face with her hair. “And all you want to say to me now is that I look different!” 

“That’s not—“ 

“Then what?” Ann spat, pulling her blazer off and throwing it aside. She gestured at herself, where her hoodie clung to her figure, and Ryuji looked away. “Is that it, then? I hit fucking  _puberty_  and you can’t look at me the same anymore?” 

Ryuji gripped the edge of the desk he sat on until his knuckles turned white, holding himself down. “Everyone was always staring at you,” he grit the words out from between clenched teeth. “I just—“ 

“You just  _thought_ ,” Ann took a shaky breath and stepped around the desk to make him look at her, “that being ignored by one of the only people in this school that I didn’t mind looking at me was what I  _needed_?!” 

“It wasn’t...” Ryuji tried, before letting his frustrated energy bring him to his feet. Ann stood her ground, both of them seething, chest to chest. “This wasn’t something I could fix by yelling and changing my hair, Ann! What the fuck did you want me to do?!” 

“I wanted you to be there!” She cried, stomping her foot. “I wanted you to act like you still gave a shit!” 

He swallowed hard, not liking the pit in his throat telling him that he should’ve been able to figure that out on his own. 

Ann stepped back, pressed the heels of her palms against her eyes, and curled in on herself, like fire kindled down to steam. “I didn’t know what I was supposed to do, Ryuji! I didn’t know what I did to make you mad, or...” 

Counting to five in his head and taking a long inhale, Ryuji leaned back against the desks. “You didn’t do anything.” 

“I hated only hearing how you were doing through rumors, or through Shiho...” Ann said weakly, slightly muffled by her hands. “I didn’t even know how bad off you were with Kamoshida until you came to school with a broken leg, for fucks sake!” 

Ryuji took another five-count and exhaled. “... I’m sorry.” 

Ann kept rubbing her eyes so hard that Ryuji was kinda worried she’d bruise. Eventually, she sat back down on the desks and let her legs hang loosely over the end, looking more like the sensitive kid Ryuji had known better, before. 

“No… No, it’s okay,” she said quietly after a while, and he settled back into his seat next to her. “It wasn’t really fair for me to keep expecting you to show up and protect me. You were going through a lot of bullshit, too.” 

She bumped her knee against his, gently. It was still tender from his fall during the last infiltration. 

“Y’know,” Ryuji stretched, working out the leftover tension, and bumped his shoulder against hers. “If I was gonna talk all that shit about bullies in middle school, and corrupt assholes in that other world, I don’t think you’re wrong for wanting me to at least own up to it for my friends.” 

Ann gave him a crooked smile. “You kinda did. That’s what all of this phantom stuff was. You coming through for me and Shiho.” 

“Yeah, well...” 

“Promise me something,” Ann reached over and grabbed the hem of Ryuji’s shirt. “You’re not gonna ghost me this time, when it all passes and people start looking at both of us again. I can’t lose Shiho and you at the same time.” 

“We didn’t lose Shiho,” Ryuji said sharply. Ann tugged at his shirt again, insistent, so he nodded. “But, yeah. Promise.” 

And just like that, they really were back to what Ryuji remembered, side by side, squabbling and letting Ann tug him around. The air wasn’t as light, and it was a little too warm, but Ryuji always had felt at home with the hot air he and Ann usually blew when they were together. It felt right, again. 

Tilting her head to look up at him, Ann pulled one of her pigtails over her shoulder. “That was the first time you’ve called me ‘Ann’ in ages, you know.” 

“That okay? Sorry I said it while, like, screaming.” 

“I mean, I think I called you by name while screaming too,” Ann mused, kicking her feet. “Let’s call it even.” 

And as if he’d been waiting for a good moment, Akira picked then to push the door to the rooftop open, an armful of sodas in tow. He smiled when he saw them where he’d left them, as if it was still special for somebody to actually wait up for him. 

“He reminds me of Shiho, sometimes,” Ann said quietly, while Akira peeked down the staircase to make sure he hadn’t been spotted, still out of earshot. “Collecting misfits and all that.” 

Ryuji could see it, that kind of reliable vibe they both gave off, but... He frowned a bit. “I dunno if we should let them meet.” 

“Why not?” 

“Did you see the way Joker grins?” Ryuji watched Akira rebalance his hold on the drinks thoughtfully before making his way to them. “They’re way too similar. They’d bring the demon outta each other.” 

He could feel Ann tense up beside him and held back a laugh.

 

~

 

**Ann** : shiho!!!

**Ann** : tell ryuji that he’s being stupid! 

**Shiho** : Ryuji, you're being stupid 

**Ryuji** : WHAT TH FUCK U DONT EVEN HAVE CONTEXT 

**Ann** : give her context then!!! 

_Ryuji is typing ..._  

**Shiho** : I’m learning a whole lot here 

**Ryuji** : HOLD ON 

**Shiho** : What, is it boy trouble? Is it Kurusu 

_Ryuji and Ann are typing ..._

  

Ryuji shoved his phone in his pocket. Ann  _would_  revive their middle school group chat just to make fun of his non-existent boy trouble. 

If he was having trouble, then he wouldn’t be actively sitting at Leblanc, watching the boy (that wasn’t causing him any trouble) fuss around with a bunch of weird coffee tools, determined to make a perfect cup. 

For months, Akira’s stayed dedicated to perfecting whatever Boss taught him after hours. The rest of the thieves were more than happy to play guinea pig for a free cup, including Ryuji, even if all the sugar packets in the world couldn’t make coffee palatable to him. Ann called him a baby, but he’d at least give it a shot, if Akira made it. 

Ryuji blinked when Akira finally set a glass in front of him, instead of a mug. “Is this a cold brew or something?” He asked, squinting at the color. 

Akira gave Ryuji one of those stupid, quiet smiles that nobody else saw too often, and played with the bangs of his stupid, fluffy hair. “It’s iced cocoa. I know you like it better, so I had Boss teach me how he made it.” 

Ryuji did his best not to stare at Akira’s stupid, expectant face while he took a sip. It was delicious. 

Whatever. Maybe he had a  _little_  boy trouble.

 

~

 

“I can’t remember the last time I had this,” Shiho said, accepting the aojiru from the juice shop clerk. 

Ryuji had been vain enough to figure as much. It had been a routine thing for the two of them for years; train together, cool down together, get a drink together. It was never something Ryuji did with his track team, or Shiho with her volleyball team as far as he knew. The way Shiho looked at him and smiled around her straw confirmed it well enough for him. 

It hadn’t been a private thing for the two of them for any reason of their part. They’d offered the ritual to Ann, who had an aversion to both sweating and drinks that didn’t taste like vanilla or strawberries. Ryuji had been meaning to bring Akira, but getting the guy out of bed before noon to go sweat was about as easy as getting Ann to. 

But, it was Sunday and Shiho was leaving Tokyo soon. Ann was housing her for the last weeks Shiho had before moving to some nowheresville in the country, and knowing she’d have Shiho to herself the entire afternoon still kept Ann from waking up earlier than she had to. It had, however, been enough to get Akira to come around, and Ryuji was fucking  _delighted_. 

Ryuji had been practically vibrating through their jog, yelling taunts in equal measure to Shiho’s encouragements, and it was probably nothing but their joint enthusiasm that kept Akira from grumbling. Exploiting Akira’s accommodating nature was something Ryuji would feel bad about some other day. 

“Wanna try it?” Shiho offered to Akira, angling her drink so he could reach the straw.  

Unselfconsciously, Akira leaned down and took a sip. Ryuji knew they’d met a few times, with Ann at least, but he wondered when the two of them had gotten so comfortable with each other. It would have probably warmed him to his core if it didn’t also vaguely active his fight or flight response. 

Akira pulled back, wincing at the flavor, and frowned when Shiho laughed at him. 

“It’s good for you,” she said, grinning. 

“I thought you liked bitter drinks, dude,” Ryuji added, not bothering to hide his own grin either. 

“I’m going to go order something that doesn’t taste like liquid grass,” Akira sighed.  

Ryuji handed him a few yen notes to treat himself, as compensation for the laugh, which Akira accepted with an exaggerated eye roll. 

Shiho turned to Ryuji, keeping her voice low. “He reminds me a lot of Ann,” she said fondly. “Like a finicky, but super loving cat.” 

Ryuji made a face at the analogy but couldn’t really argue it. 

“You seem like you’re having a lot of fun these days,” she continued, and there was something knowing in her gaze, but Ryuji couldn’t figure out what exactly she was implying one way or the other. 

“He’s great,” Ryuji admitted, watching Akira deliberate over the small menu carefully, as if he wasn’t just going to order something coffee-adjacent. “Got me doing a lot of things I didn’t think I’d ever do again, like running. Or making friends.” 

Something conflicted flashed across Shiho’s expression for a moment, before she settled on a contented smile. “That’s a relief... I’ve wanted to see you get back to doing the things you loved for a while now.” 

“That’s why I was so jazzed about today, I think,” Ryuji rambled on, scratching the back of his neck. “In the past few months I hadn’t really thought about getting the chance to do this kind of shit with  _both_  of you! I can’t think about training with friends without thinking about you, or that guy, and getting to have both feels... special? Like we’re all finally free from something that was keeping it from happening before.” 

It was beyond Ryuji if he was making any sense, and he figured he probably wasn’t based on the mutual confusion he usually ended up with when he said things like that to Akira. He still felt like it was a sentiment worth sharing, before Shiho was really gone. 

Her smile bloomed into something gentler, vulnerable. “I’m really going to miss this, Ryuji. I think I took a lot for granted here.” 

“Hey,” Ryuji said lightly. “It’s not like our running paths or the juice stand are gonna go anywhere before you can come back.” He didn’t add that he’d never go anywhere Shiho couldn’t someday follow, but she kept smiling, like she already knew. 

When Akira rejoined them, Shiho took a long sip of her drink and shook off the mushy atmosphere. “By the way, I’m really glad you kept up bleaching your hair.” 

Face slightly flushed, Ryuji ducked his head. It had never been a deep thing to him, but he’d decided a long time ago that as long as there weren’t enough blonde heads at school to keep Ann from scrutiny, he’d do his part. During the estranged year, it wasn’t something he’d thought about too actively, but the idea behind it had never changed. So long as he heard Ann’s name less-than-kindly on the lips of some assholes that didn’t even know her, he’d just keep standing out harder. Simple enough. 

Shiho sighed deeply, overly dramatic, and put her palm to her cheek. “I’m still bitter that I didn’t think to do it first, you know.” 

Akira considered Shiho’s long, dark hair, silky and pretty by every means, if only having dark hair in Japan weren’t so incredibly  _typical_. “It’s not too late,” Akira considered, twirling a lock of his own dark curls. 

“Nah, it’s for the best,” Ryuji said, just to be contrary, trying not to grin when Shiho blinked at him. He liked them both the way they looked now, and knew Ann did too, but that wouldn’t be as fun to say out loud. “You two wouldn’t make good blondes.” 

“Wha... I would too!”

 

~

 

“I don’t like cats. Never have,” Ryuji grumbled, trying in vain to shift his weight off of a spring in Akira’s mattress that’d been poking him in the ass for an hour. For everything Boss and Akira did over the past two years to turn the attic into a real living space, getting a new bed still hadn’t happened. “How did I end up here?” 

“What are you talking about?” Akira mumbled, stretched, and twisted his torso in a way that people probably shouldn’t be able to so he could squint up at Ryuji’s face. Not interested in interpreting the dry look Ryuji gave him, he dropped his head back down, pressing his lips to the exposed skin where Ryuji’s shirt was riding up, and threw an arm across Ryuji’s lap.  

On Ryuji’s other side, Ann made an indecipherable noise from the back of her throat and pressed her forehead against Ryuji’s hip, eyes squeezed shut. 

He looked desperately at Shiho, who didn’t even grace him with a sympathetic smile while she snapped pictures on her phone. “They’re cute,” she decided. 

“Easy for you to say. If you told them to get off of you, they actually would.” 

For good measure, Ann took a fistful of Ryuji’s shirt, tugged, and curled up closer. 

Slipping her phone into her pocket, Shiho hummed, agreeing, and crawled her way into the mix. Ryuji sighed, laid back, and kept pretending to mind.

**Author's Note:**

> next, some time with akira and shiho's thoughts. you don't have to read [from time](https://archiveofourown.org/works/11178246), but it fills in some context.
> 
> im hanging around twitter [@yyormgen](https://twitter.com/yyormgen), and sporadically post on tumblr [@tolbyccia](http://tolbyccia.tumblr.com/)


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